Editorial standards

Sourcing

For law and regulation we go to the primary source: the regulation on eCFR, the state statute on the legislature’s own website, the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance. A legal citation names the rule, such as “16 CFR Part 437”, and links to it where it is first mentioned. Every figure is linked to its source or shown as arithmetic, and each article ends with its list of sources.

We never invent a company, a complaint, a quote or a case. When we describe what buyers report in public complaints, we describe the pattern and do not attribute it to a named company.

We do not use unnamed sources. Facts come from documents a reader can open and check (regulations, statutes, public records, published terms and marketplace listings), each linked where it is used.

Legal topics

Articles about contracts, refunds and regulation are general information, not legal advice, and each carries a dated note saying so and when its sources were checked. Laws differ by state and contracts differ by company; for a decision about a contract you hold, ask a lawyer to read it.

Data and worked examples

We do the arithmetic for the reader: totals over 24 months, break-even sales, refund timelines. Totals show their formula in the row label (“Deposit + 24 × monthly fee”), so you can redo them with your own figures.

Every worked example uses the same house assumptions unless the article says it is testing others: $8 per serving or sale, $1.80 cost of goods per serving, a 40% venue share of net sales and a $100 monthly placement fee ($200 for a Premium location). The $8 is our own round figure. The other three come from public marketplace listings and fees: the cost of goods fixed in the host agreements behind the listings, the median venue share in those listings and a Standard placement fee, with the source named under Conflicts of interest. Unless an article says otherwise, the worked examples treat the $1.80 as the operator’s whole cost per sale and leave card fees out, so an $8 sale leaves $3.72 at a 40% share; an article that adds card fees or a separate supply cost says so in its assumptions. Every example is labeled “an illustration, not a forecast”.

Figures from a company’s marketplace or posted terms carry their source and the date we collected them. Visitor counts in marketplace listings are reported by the venues and are not audited, and we say so when we use them. We hold no sales records for any machine or venue and do not imply that we do.

Sample clauses and published terms

Clause by clause is how we work: we quote the clause, explain what it means, then say what to ask for. Clauses labeled “Sample clause” are generic examples written for illustration; they are never presented as a real company’s contract. When an article quotes a company’s actual terms, it labels them “Published term”, links the page they come from. Those terms get the same checks as any others.

Fairness

We name red flags by behavior, never by company. We don’t publish rankings, star ratings or “best locator” lists, we don’t criticize named companies, and we don’t rank or recommend any locator over the others. We avoid sensational language: no shouting headlines, no fear-mongering, no exclamation marks.

AI assistance

AI tools assist research and drafting. The editor, Don Harrison, checks each article against its sources before publication, and the article’s desk is accountable for it. Article photos are AI-generated too; the next section says how they are labeled.

Images

The photos in our articles are AI-generated depictions of typical scenes, and each one is labeled as such: its caption ends with “AI-generated image”. They do not show specific businesses, venues or people, and they never contain data or text presented as fact. A caption adds context from the article; it never claims that a photo shows a real place, company or result.

Bylines and editing

Articles are bylined to one of two desks rather than to named reporters, because AI tools assist the research and drafting. Every article page names the desk that is accountable for it and the editor who checked it, Don Harrison. Each desk’s page lists everything it has filed, and the editor’s page lists every article.

Corrections

To ask for a correction, write to the editors through our contact page with the article’s address and the passage in question. We check every request against the sources. When we find an error, we correct the article and add a dated note in a Corrections block at the end of it, saying what the article said, what is right and the source. Substantial updates also change the article’s “Updated” date.

Review dates

Every article ends with the date it was last reviewed and the date of its next review, at most 90 days later. A review rechecks every regulation, published term, figure and link, and updates the article when something has changed.

Conflicts of interest

Nobody pays for coverage in Fine Print: no paid placements, no sponsored articles, no affiliate fees and no payment for a mention or a link. We never rank locators or publish a “best locators” list. Where an article uses a locator’s published terms, fees or marketplace figures as a worked example, including three of our house assumptions, it links the page and carries the date we collected them.

Links

External links are citations: they point to the source of a fact, open in the same tab and are not marked nofollow. Every mention of a company is a link to that company’s own site.